NEW DELHI: Poor maintenance and malfunctioning of vital equipment at various airports in the country are causing grave concern among civil aviation experts who feel quite useless and drastic steps are taken to improve aerodrome conditions major tragedies could over.
At least three air crashes in the last three and a half years have been caused by the malfunctioning of navigational aids and the Instrument Landing System (ILS). And in their debriefing reports to the National Airports Authority pilots have reported many other instances of equipment malfunctioning.
The inquiry into the crash of the Indian Airlines Boeing 737 (IC257) at Imphal on Aug 6 last year is still on. But the commission headed by Justice UC Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court has enough reason to believe that the failure of navigational aids was responsible for leading the plane off course and that the ILS chart was not sufficient for the pilot.
This is a significant departure from the preliminary investigation which had held that the plane was off course and that standard landing procedures were not observed.
Faulty landing aids were also found to be the major causes for the two air crashes on Oct. 19, 1988 at Ahmedabad and Guwahati. While 131 persons were killed in the Boeing 737 crash at Ahmedabad 35 persons were killed in the Guwahati crash involving a Fokker Friendship plane operated by Vayudoot.
But the tragedies according to airport sources have apparently had little impact on the authorities and reports of the malfunctioning of vital equipment continue to pour in from pilots.
The Very High Frequency Omni Radio Range (VOR) has frequently malfunctioned at various airports including Udaipur and Amritsar. The VOR often enough remained unserviceable and it has been pointed out in no uncertain terms by pilots during their debriefing reports. To no effect though.
While the ILS provides assistance in landing safely the VORs function in landing safely the VORs function is primarily navigational: it provides the frequency to keep the flying machine on course omits a mores code which tells pilot that he is turned to a particular station it has a to and for indicator and also Distance Measuring Equipment (DME).
“Safety procedures at the airports sue observed more in the breach. The frequent malfunctioning of these systems has reduced them to potential slaughter houses” said a senior Civil Aviation Ministry official.
Sources said that pilots landing at Amritsar have often been forced to tune into Lahore’s airport to find their spatial moorings because of the malfunctioning of the relevant equipment at Amritsar airport. This in itself is a serious violation of regulations which can lead to unpredictable consequences.
But as an aviation expert explained it “Regulations cannot but be disregarded when it comes to saving human life. What can the pilots do if the airport authorities continue to ignore their complaints?”
The VOR has malfunctioned primarily because maintenance schedules are not adhered to and defective components remains un-replaced. Lack of qualified personnel is the primary reason.
Such sophisticated systems have to be maintained by qualified technicians and engineers” re marked an Aviation Ministry official.
The National Airports Authority (NAA) has so far not evolved 2 system of deploying licensed technicians and engineers for such work.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1992
